Some county races a bit strange

It wasn't exactly a race, and the newly elected Scurry County Sheriff wasn't really taking any victory laps after ballots were counted Tuesday night.

In one of the more strange races in the region, Keith Collier, who was unopposed as a Democratic candidate for sheriff, won the race for a spot he retired from almost four years ago, and a position he had already announced he would refuse once elected.

Collier got 3,716 votes, with three other write-in candidates also obtaining votes.

The Democratic Party in Scurry County named Collier as the party's candidate following the disqualification of the original candidate, Darren Jackson. He was removed from the ballot after breaking a state rule by voting for friends in contested Republican primary races.

Jackson has said that he didn't realize he broke any rules, and hoped that county commissioners would appoint him as sheriff once Collier had formally refused the position. Collier said he endorses Jackson as Scurry County sheriff and hopes commissioners will appoint him.

In Terry County, the race between incumbent County Attorney Dwayne Pruitt, a Democrat, and Republican candidate Frank Lacy was a close call, but Pruitt edged out Lacy with 2,100 votes and Lacy with 1,960.

In the days before the election, controversy arose when an advertisement in the Brownfield News ran that accused Lacy of misrepresenting facts to a district judge in a recent hearing.

Lacy said last week that he would not discuss the case because the judge has not issued a ruling.

"Since I was an attorney in that case, I don't think it's appropriate to discuss that case publicly," he said.

Tiffany Hicks, Lacy's client in the case, said the allegations against Lacy were not true. The Brownfield newspaper refused to run an ad refuting the allegations.

Pruitt said he didn't think issues surrounding the advertisement had much to do with the outcome of the election, but the closeness of the race was surprising.

"It surprised me," Pruitt said. "But you know, it doesn't really shock you too much when you do your job, you are going to make a lot of people mad."

In Castro County, it's back to the drawing board for plans to fund a new jail facility. Voters decided that funding a 48-bed jail with a $3 million bond issue wasn't in their best interests, but the race was a tight one with 952 voting in favor of the bond, and 980 against.